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North Korea has set up posts along its border with South Korea to be able to more quickly invade its neighbor, while also expanding its artillery and mechanized forces, according to South Korea’s Defense Ministry.

Kim Jong Un’s regime is setting up “infiltration facilities” along the demilitarized zone dividing the countries to be able to both accommodate and rapidly deploy special forces into South Korea if war breaks out, the ministry said in its latest white paper released today. It didn’t say how many posts there are or whether they included tunnels and housed weapons.

North Korea has also probably developed ballistic missiles capable of threatening the continental U.S., according to the report, the first time South Korea has made the assertion in its white paper.

“These are newly spotted structures and could be part of a wider network of military bases and tunnels,” Park Chang Kwon, a senior research fellow at the state-run Korea Institute for Defense Analyses in Seoul, said by phone. South Korea is also “formally saying that North Korea has very much addressed the issues of accuracy and reliability for its intercontinental ballistic missile.”

The biannual assessment offers a glimpse into North Korea’s defense strategy as it develops asymmetric capabilities to defend against the more modern forces across its border. Under its songun, or military-first policy chartered by late leader Kim Jong Il, the North has funneled its limited resources into building weapons systems capable of deterring what it calls U.S. and South Korean hostility.

North Korea’s capacity to miniaturize nuclear warheads is also believed to have reached a “considerable” level, according to the paper. No South Korean or U.S. officials have said the North has yet obtained the ability to tip a long-range missile with a nuclear warhead.

North Korea is also building a fleet of high-speed boats while developing submarines capable of carrying ballistic missiles, according to the white paper.

In his New Year address broadcast Jan. 1, Kim Jong Un said he would beef up his country’s war-fighting forces, which includes the development of nuclear weapons. At the same time, he raised the possibility of a summit with South Korean President Park Geun Hye to ease tensions between the two countries more than 60 years after the end of their civil war.

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I would be very interested to know more about how South Korea determined this in their study. As of right now, I don't totally buy it. North Korea likes to boast, and while I don't think having some type of missile capability is farfetched, I can't see North Korea's abilities to be that advanced. I do, though, see some benefit to South Korea overestimating North Korea's capabilities (proximity to the danger and aid offered by the US come to mind).

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This is all I have to say about this... they would be complete idiots or suicidal to attack the South. Even with China's support, they don't have a chance in h&*( to win. They know this. They are way behind in technological advancement, South Korea is protected by the United States (and everyone knows how blood thirsty and crazy us US citizens* are ). I mean, they could not even get a missile off the ground with out it falling apart. I saw a picture once of Kim Jong Un (sadly I have a very distant relation to this guy. My mother is a South Korean and her maiden name was Kim. Turns out... he's a branch off the same blood line as me.) and he was observing someone on a computer. The computer was out dated by almost 10 years. They can attack all they want, but they would just be obliterating themselves to do so.

* I do not refer my nation as American. America is the continent where the United States is, but the country is the United States... not America. When I am referring to all the countries that reside on the American continent then I use the term American. I just wanted to clarify that because a lot of people get confused about this and I wanted everyone to know ahead of time that so that there is no confusion as to whom I am referring to.

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Does North Korea really believe that there is something significant with all that they do? They might have technological advancements they say, but even so it's not at par with the superpowers, not because they are superpowers but because those countries collaborate with and compete healthily against each other that in turn they can knowledge and strength. The key to their success is that they don't isolate themselves like North Korea does to itself. I strongly think that anything that they do is futile and just a mere childish rant. Grow up!

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North Korea's claims here are inconsistent with what we have seen from their failed rocket launches and level of technological sophistication. It's doubtful if they have ICBMs with ranges above 10,000+ km that are capable of "reliably" and "accurately" reaching the US, when they've yet to conduct a successful missile test. The report does not base these claims on any real intelligence on their plans, but on the presence of a few "structures".

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Does North Korea really believe that there is something significant with all that they do? They might have technological advancements they say, but even so it's not at par with the superpowers, not because they are superpowers but because those countries collaborate with and compete healthily against each other that in turn they can knowledge and strength. The key to their success is that they don't isolate themselves like North Korea does to itself. I strongly think that anything that they do is futile and just a mere childish rant. Grow up!

North Korean obviously did not learn from the Berlin wall. Before the wall, Germany was advancing well... their economy was decent (until they were dumb enough to wage war), and their people were happy. Then the wall went up and they went down the toilet. Once the wall came down their economy and advancements began to surge and their people became happy again.

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Fat chance. How ambitious of Kim Jong-Un and his servants to even consider infiltrating South Korea. Besides, the question isn't about how high their ambitions are but on whether or not they're capable of succeeding. Can they really shrink nuclear warheads? Even developed countries have not yet perfected crafting miniature weapons. I repeat: fat chance. Rather than waste their money developing half-baked weapons, North Korea could have spent it feeding their impoverished citizens who eat twigs if not the flesh of their own dead.

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A lot of what North Korea often says and makes it seem like they are doing, is usually just to make it seem like they are the most powerful and developed country in the world. For example, they claim to have a 99% literacy rate, but we all know that isn't true at all, otherwise they wouldn't have such high levels of poverty. It is a nation based on the brainwashing and control of it's citizens, therefore it is very important for them to make it seem like their really powerful, even though none of us might believe it.

However, the possibility of them having developed nuclear warheads isn't one that I would consider impossible, I mean with having positive ties with countries with strong nuclear capabilities like China. But still, their production capabilities of such weapons would not be that big.

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Everyone talks negatively about North Korea, because as always Western countries tend to demonize every country who don't submit or agree to them.

To start I won't say north Korea is poor like stated above, I may say they live in a different way, it may be Communism or whatever you wanna call it, but they just have a simple life, they don't need to have cars or sophisticated technology for civil purposes, why that? to be the same as western countries a lot of materialists?
They enjoy a simple life with their bicycles, their long green areas and everything else, they just healthier than the rest of the countries, also, people tend to say they have been brain washed, why? because they love their leaders, I would love my leaders too, if they give me a house to live, free education, clean environment, free health care, etc

It's just like Libya and Muammar Gaddaffi, a good man demonized and killed because one rich kid of a US politician went on bankruptcy because he imposed to take out of the country the foreign oil companies, he gave to his people, free energy, no loan fees, free houses, etc, so it is well know that US is always after their own interests.

Anyway, North Korea has to defend themselves and their sovereignty against that threat of the US, and from their materialists neighbors, so yeah they may be discrete about their nuclear weapons, and maybe they could have more power than expected by western countries, also they have support by China Government, so if the US tries to attack them, maybe Chinese and the other countries against NATO and USA will come in help.

The major threat for the US government is a country that does not think like they do.

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North Korean obviously did not learn from the Berlin wall. Before the wall, Germany was advancing well... their economy was decent (until they were dumb enough to wage war), and their people were happy. Then the wall went up and they went down the toilet. Once the wall came down their economy and advancements began to surge and their people became happy again.

Erm Germany was doing well, recovering after the Great War (WWI) until the Wall Street Crash in '29. This did not directly effect the industrial might of Germany at that point, but it bankrupted France. France then used the terrible Treaty of Versailles to basically walk into Germany and take over all their industries that had recovered even whilst paying reparations, reducing German GDP to zero over night. Germany were not being fools, they were forced into it - and they damn near won too. Unlike NK most of the innovations were coming from Germany and Britain - with respect to rocketry, the Germans were decade ahead (the Brits had the advantage of jet engines first, radar and infrared). NK is backwards, isolated more akin to pre-war Japan - however, in Japan the people had a long history of military might and their love for Emperor took them to their graves (as we saw with the suicide Zero pilot - Kamakazees) - anyone really think the NK people will march to the same tune for blubby-boy-bad-haircut?

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Everyone talks negatively about North Korea, because as always Western countries tend to demonize every country who don't submit or agree to them.

To start I won't say north Korea is poor like stated above, I may say they live in a different way, it may be Communism or whatever you wanna call it, but they just have a simple life, they don't need to have cars or sophisticated technology for civil purposes, why that? to be the same as western countries a lot of materialists?
They enjoy a simple life with their bicycles, their long green areas and everything else, they just healthier than the rest of the countries, also, people tend to say they have been brain washed, why? because they love their leaders, I would love my leaders too, if they give me a house to live, free education, clean environment, free health care, etc

It's just like Libya and Muammar Gaddaffi, a good man demonized and killed because one rich kid of a US politician went on bankruptcy because he imposed to take out of the country the foreign oil companies, he gave to his people, free energy, no loan fees, free houses, etc, so it is well know that US is always after their own interests.

Anyway, North Korea has to defend themselves and their sovereignty against that threat of the US, and from their materialists neighbors, so yeah they may be discrete about their nuclear weapons, and maybe they could have more power than expected by western countries, also they have support by China Government, so if the US tries to attack them, maybe Chinese and the other countries against NATO and USA will come in help.

The major threat for the US government is a country that does not think like they do.

Whilst I get your sentiment - do you really believe the NK people are happy with starving, being fed to dogs on the whim of a boy, of forced to cut their hair the same way he does? Do you think any of the common NK people would not trade in their lot for a spot in the South instead? It is easy to see the answer to this - just look at the swarms on NKs who risk their lives being smuggled out through Laos, Thailand and Cambodia to get to the South. You may have a point about Gaddafi as to why he was singled out - oil - but then why is NK being singled out? Where is their oil?

NK is not defending itself firing missiles and amassing troops at borders, they are intimidating and spoiling for a fight. They show this with the continual threats, and attempts at distabalising through hacking and cyber crime. They are without doubt one of the top 3 most dangerous nations on Earth - not because of their technology or willingness to defend themselves, but because of their volatility.

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Why do I find this so hard to believe, especially after their recently failed missile launch. I don't see it happening, not unless they imported some really brilliant minds to help with the whole development. It's proven that North Korea on its own cannot create such advanced technology. Plus they like to boast, they're like the Chihuahua of the world.

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Why do I find this so hard to believe, especially after their recently failed missile launch. I don't see it happening, not unless they imported some really brilliant minds to help with the whole development. It's proven that North Korea on its own cannot create such advanced technology. Plus they like to boast, they're like the Chihuahua of the world.

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We get housing, healthcare and education for free in the UK but we certainly don't love our leaders - far from it in fact. I really can't understand how people can live in a country with no prospects, severely limited media and the constant threat to life without being brainwashed into it . You can't even choose your own haircut in NK for crying out loud, it has to be from an approved list of styles!

I'm pretty sure that the announcements from the lil' man are all bravado and no substance. Purely for appearances sake.

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Whilst I get your sentiment - do you really believe the NK people are happy with starving, being fed to dogs on the whim of a boy, of forced to cut their hair the same way he does? Do you think any of the common NK people would not trade in their lot for a spot in the South instead? It is easy to see the answer to this - just look at the swarms on NKs who risk their lives being smuggled out through Laos, Thailand and Cambodia to get to the South. You may have a point about Gaddafi as to why he was singled out - oil - but then why is NK being singled out? Where is their oil?

NK is not defending itself firing missiles and amassing troops at borders, they are intimidating and spoiling for a fight. They show this with the continual threats, and attempts at distabalising through hacking and cyber crime. They are without doubt one of the top 3 most dangerous nations on Earth - not because of their technology or willingness to defend themselves, but because of their volatility.

Not everyone thinks in the same way, those North Koreans who try to escape of the country may have their reasons, maybe they have a family in other countries, or they just simply want to live like people in other countries, maybe they want something they can't have in there.
About the starving, as I have investigated, they had difficult times with food a long time ago, but that is not occurring nowadays.

Also, maybe they don't have oil, but a few months ago, the US government, proposed to the Chinese, that they should take out North Korea together and then take equal parts of the territory, so you can never say a place don't have value, because every place has its value, and US government may want just to eliminate an enemy and the lands may be the loot.

About hacking? if you say for the alleged hack to Sony Pictures, other sources said that it was not the North Koreans, that is not clear yet, you just can't argue with what the Press say, or have you been brainwashed by all the press?